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I’ve posted before about the magic ride and handling of proper Jaguars, particularly those orchestrated by Mike Cross.

In this blog post, Motor Trend’s editor goes into more detail on Mike’s work on the new XF.

Here’s a quote:

his cars are anything but the rock-hard, kidney-rattling rides you can sometimes get from enthusiast engineers. Part of the secret… is that Jaguar pays close attention to controlling the roll rate of the suspension, even when the car is travelling in a straight line. The idea, says Cross, is to reduce what ride and handling engineers call “head toss,” the side-to-side pitching of your head that occurs when your car rides over bumps on alternate sides. You can feel it in the XF in the way the vertical body movements are so deftly modulated. But that’s only part of the story. The XF, like our much-missed XKR long termer, rides beautifully for a car rolling on low-profile 20-inch Pirelli PZeros. It’s firm and taut, but never harsh. A constant dialogue from the chassis means you know exactly what’s going on where the rubber meets the road, but the conversation is always calm and muted, even when you’re driving hard. How? I suspect a lot of time and effort on geometry and bush design, but only Mike Cross and his team really know.

At last, a Jaguar that not only competes with the premium Germans, but also looks forward far enough to make it a plausible match for whatever über-saloon they’ll come up with next. The XF has already snaffled enough plaudits to make it feel like the next stage in an actual rennaissance (the XK was the first stage), rather than another dreary false dawn. – Top Gear

Then there’s the talented chassis, and in particular the steering, which has that lovely ‘clean’ response a first-generation Focus driver might recognise. It’s not a light car this, but its ability to remain tight and controlled when you chuck it about shows how well its man boobs have been disguised. For a big saloon (it’s taller and wider than a 5-series), the way the Jag can be hustled, gripping hard through corners then spearing neatly out of them, is genuinely entertaining. An impressive bit of kit then, managing to be more fun than an equivalent Merc or Audi, with a warmer personality than a BMW. – evo

[Jaguar’s Chassis genius Mike Cross] is always adamant that a Jaguar must ‘breathe’ over the road, and not be so tied down that it gets choppy and uncomfortable. Apart from anything else, a breathing car is a faster car because its wheels are in better contact with the road and the driver isn’t being battered. (That’s why a World Rally Car has a suspension suppleness that would astound someone steeped in a culture where stiffer and lower equates to sportier.) – 4Car

When I was younger, brand meant something; Mercedes Benzes were solid but stolid, Jags were distincitive but rough around the edges and everywhere else, Porsches were built to be driven in anger, and BMW baked near magic balance between ride and handling into every product it sold.

But today, in an age of mergers and acquisitions, marketing and accounting rather than engineering – call the shots. In a spectacular display of vanity, no one was content doing what they do best and has suffered for their hubristic attempt at winning over ‘crossover’ buyers. Lexus comfort has gone out the window in an attempt to be more like BMW, BMW and Porsche chassis are literally ruined by the big wheels dictated by a stylist’s pen. Meanwhile Jaguar and Mercedes Benz have recently quietly focused their attention on the details that make the difference between competent and competitive.

I never thought I’d live to see the day when Jaguars and Benzes key to the road more fluidly than a Porsche or BMW but as you read this comparison you’ll see my point.

Don’t trust brand, trust the feel of the final product.

One of Lotus Cars founder Colin Chapman’s mottos was to “Simplify and add lightness.”  The new Jaguar XK ia a perfect example of why: the touch screen navigation interface and paddle shiftable automatic transmission are refreshingly simple to use and the lightweight aluminum body yields an unmatched balance between ride and handling and increases efficiency.

In a day when many cars have become needlessly heavy and complex, the XK is a breath of fresh air.

Innovative use of aluminum has proven a defining asset for Jaguar, a unifying engineering theme that’s arrived just in time to imbue the marque with renewed credibility and substance. If we are to be honest, Jaguar had been coasting on the technology front for some time… Yet… Jaguar’s ambitious lineup for an all-aluminum fighting force has been scratched. Aluminum-bodied replacements for the X-type and the S-type have been canceled in favor of minor redesigns. – Jamie Kitman, Automobile Magazine